Whether it’s the annual Blue Ridge Barbecue Festival, a concert at the Tryon Fine Arts Center, a gathering of accomplished individuals, if it’s happening in Tryon, chances are good that Andy Millard is part of it.
“I’m an idea man,” Millard says. “I have all these ideas,” he continued, modestly explaining, “nineteen of twenty might be terrible.” Some folks might argue that his proportion of winners is much higher.
For instance, Millard, whose financial planning office (Millard and Co.) is located in Tryon’s historic Depot, got the idea to have a gathering of World War Two veterans at the Depot to commemorate the 70thanniversary of D-Day, this past June 6.  He figured that maybe four or five WW II vets would show up. Instead, twenty-three were there, along with veterans of subsequent wars and conflicts to which the U.S. sent troops.
Millard was master of ceremonies at that event, and has filled that role at others.
He is on the board of Tryon Fine Arts Center (TFAC); he parks cars, and loves doing it, at the Blue Ridge Barbecue Festival (which he chaired for eight years); he organized a five-mile running race in Tryon; he runs marathons; he’s past president of Carolina Foothills Chamber of Commerce; past president of the Kiwanis Club of Tryon, and the founder of the Landrum Kiwanis Club.
Above all, this native of Flint, Michigan can’t get enough of his adopted home of Tryon, or the many people he’s met and interviewed. Another of Millard’s loves is conducting video interviews of individuals who have made their own contributions to the town.
His professional clients can watch videos that Millard makes of himself to explain rewarding ideas and strategy to others. He does so with clarity, humor and purpose.
Though he helps his clients earn money, he notes, “The only real wealth we have is the good we’ve done for others. Yes, I’m in the money business, but real wealth isn’t money. Some of the people who focus on money are the unhappiest people I’ve known. Money,” Millard insists, “is important only to the extent that it supports the major priorities.”
Millard found a way to stay in Tryon when he was thirty-five.
When his parents moved from Flint they chose Spartanburg, where they had a home built. Before the home was ready for the family to move in the builder offered them a rental on Lake Lanier. Fourteen-year-old Andy Millard liked being in Tryon. It was much different that what he’d envisioned.
Before moving from Michigan, Millard admitted, “All I knew about the South was Andy Griffith and the Beverly Hillbillies.”
Once here he realized that the move created an opportunity. “It was a great opportunity to build my life all over again. I could create myself starting at age fourteen. It’s just been wonderful,” he recalled.
After he lived in Spartanburg for some twenty years, he made an important decision. “When I got the opportunity to move back here (Tryon) at age thirty-five,” he remembers, “I jumped on it.”
He’s very grateful. “I love, love, love, Tryon,” Millard gushed. “It’s pretty, all the arts . . .
Most of all, I love Tryon because of all the people who are here. It’s like a family.”
Though he remembers that he and his young siblings “fought like cats and dogs,” the world is not like that to him these days. “We are all thrown together,” he observed. “We can’t dismiss each other. We have to help each other, and care about each other. I’ve got so many wonderful friends, all different from me.”
The benefits of creating himself at an early age are many. “All this is just a fertile place to come up with these crazy ideas,” he remarked. “I have the luxury to be able to implement them.” He said many of his successful ideas come to him when he is running. His advice? “Clear all the noise, and let yourself not think. I have the luxury of having my own business, and being able to implement the ideas I have, without having to ask anybody’s permission.”
Some folks dream of places remote and mysterious, but even though Millard travels, he’s basically happy where he is. “It’s the little things, like emceeing the Trashion Show’ on April Fools Day and emceeing the costume contest for the Halloween Stroll.”
Of the five marathons Millard has run, two were part of the ‘Goofy Challenge’ at Walt Disney World, where entrants run a half-marathon on Saturday, and a full marathon on Sunday.
Millard even finds time to sing, having performed two concerts for charity. In addition, he was first runner-up at a ‘womanless beauty pageant, held at Polk County High School, (He insists he was “cuter’ than the winner).
Millard feels fortunate to have his business in Tryon’s historic old train depot. He said that when trains ran from Cincinnati to Charleston many passengers got off at Tryon, and stayed here finding the location so much to their liking.
One of those individuals was Carter Brown, who arrived in Tryon from Holland, Michigan, in 1918.  Holland opened the Pine Crest Inn, founded the Tryon Riding and Hunt Club, and is known as the “father” of the still-popular Block House Steeplechase. Among those whom Millard has interviewed is Carter Brown’s son.
“The Depot is one of these things that is special to my existence in Tryon,” Millard noted. “To be the temporary caretaker of it for a while, knowing all the people who passed through here . . .”
Millard modestly insists, “All the best things that have happened to me, I’ve just stumbled over.”